Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

dedication, either of perfons to a boly office; and fo the Minifters of Chritt are fantified in their Ordination (which is a Confecration) and their felf-dedication to God. (And it is high facriledge in themselves, or any other, that fhall alienate them unjustly from their facred calling and work.) Or of things to holy uses; (as places and utenfils may be fanctified: Or it may be a dedication of perfons to a boly state, relation and sefe; as is that of every Chriftian in his Baptifm: and this is either an external dedication, and fo all the baptized are finified and holy; or an internal Dedication, which if it be fincere, it is both actual and babitual, when we both give up our felves to God in Covenant, and are alfo difpofed and inclined to him; and our hearts are set upon him, yea and the life alfo confitteth of the excrcife of this difpofition, and performance of this cove. nant. This is the San&ification which here I fpeak of. And fo much for the name.

The doctrinal Propofitions neceffary to be understood about it, are thefe (more largely and plainly laid down in my Confeim, Chap. 3)

Prop. 1. So much of the appearance or Image of God as there is upon any creature, fo much it is good and amiable to God and

man.

ObjecЯ. God loveth us from eternity, and when we were bis enemies, not because we were good, but to make us better than we

were.

Aufw. Gods Love (and all Love) confifteth formaly in complacenty. God hath no complacency in any thing but in good; or according to the mesfure of its goodness: From eternity God forefeeing the good which would be in us, loved us as good in effe cognito; and not as actually good, when we were not. When we were his enemies, he had a doable love to us (or complacency) the one was for that natural good which remained in us as we were men, and repairable, and capable of being made Saints. The other was for that forefeen good as in fle cognito, which he purpofed in time to come, to put upon us. This complacency exceeded not at all the good which was the object of it: But with it was joyned a will and purpose to give us grace and glory hereafter; and thence it is called, A Love of Benevolence: Not but that complacency is the true no

tion of Love; and Benevolence, or a purpose to give benefits, is but the fruit of it. But if any will needs call the Benevolence alone by the name of Love, we deny not in that fenfe that God loveth Saxl a perfecutor, as well as Paul an Apoftle; in that his purpose to do him good is the fame.

Object. God loveth us in Chrift, and for bis righteousness, and not only for our own inherent boliness.

Anfo.: .:1. The Benevolence of God is exercifed towards us in and by Chrift; and the fruits of his Love are Chrift himself, and the mercies given us with Christ, and by Chrift. And our Pardon, and Juftification, and Adoption, and Accepta ce is by bis meritorious righteoufnels: And it is by bim that we are poffeffed with Gods Spirit, and renewed according to his Image,in Wisdom, and Righteoufrefs, and Holiness: And all this relative and inherent mercy we have as in Cbrift, related to him, without whom we have nothing: And thus it is that we are accepted and beloved in him, and for his righteousness. But Chrift did not die or merit to change Gods Nature, and make him more indifferent in his Love to the holy and the unholy, or equally to the more holy, and to the less holy. But his complacency is ftill in no man further than he is made truly amiable in his real holiness, and his relation to Chrift, and to the Father. (The Doctrine of Imputation is opened before.) John 16. 27. The Father himself loveth you, because ye have lived me, and believed, &c. And 14.21. He that loveth me, shall be loved of my Father-As God loved us with the love of benevolence, and fo much complacence as is before defcribed before we loved bim (1 John 4. 10. Ephef. 2. 4.) fo he now loveth us complaCentially for his Image upon us, and fo much of his grace as is found in us; and also for our relation to his Son, and to himfelf, which we ftand in by this grace: But as he loveth not Saul a perfecutor, under the notion of a fulfiller of his Law in Chrift, fo neither doth he love David in his fin, under the notion of one that is without fin, and perfect, as having fulfilled the Law in Chrift: But fo loveth him in Chrift, as to pardon bis fin, and make him more lovely in himself, by creating a clean beart and renewing a right spirit within him, for the fake of the fatisfaction and merits of Chrift.

[ocr errors][merged small]

Prop. 2. Holiness is Gods Image upon us, and that which was our primitive amiableness, Col. 3. 10.

Prop. 3. The loss of Holiness, was the loss of our amiablenefs, and our ftate of enmity to God.

Prop. 4. Holiness confifteth in 1. Our refignation of our felves to God as our Owner, and fubmiffion to his Providence: 2. And our fubjection to God as our Ruler; and obedience to his Teaching and his Laws: 3. And in Thankfulness and Love to God as our Chief Good, efficiently and finally, Prop. 5. Love is that final perfective act, which implyeth and comprehendeth all the reft; and fo is the fulfilling of the Law, and the true ftate of fan&tification, Rom 13. 10. Matth. 22. 37. Mark 12. 33. 1 John 7. 16. Prop. 6. Heaven it self, as it is our ultimate end and perfection, is but our perfc& Love to God maintained by perfect vifion of him, with the perfect reception of his

Love to us.

Frop. 7. Therefore it was Chrifts great bufinefs in the world, to deftroy the works of the Devil, and to bring us to this perfect Love of God.

Prop. 8. Accordingly the greatest use of Faith in Chrift is to fubferve and kindle our Love to God.

Prop. 9. This it doth two fpecial waies: 1. By procuring the pardon of fin, which forfeited the grace of the Spirit; that fo the Spirit may kindle the Love of God in us: 2. By actual beholding the Love of God, which fhineth to us moft gloriously in Chrift, by which our Love muft be excited, as the moft fuitable and effectual means, Fobn 3. 1. & 4. 10.

Prop. 10. Our whole Religion therefore confifteth of two parts: 1. Primitive Holinefs, reftored and perfected: 2. The restoring and perfecting means: Or 1. Love to God, the final and more excellent part: 2. Faith in Chrift, the mediate part. Faith caufing Love, and Love caused by Faith, 1 Cor. 12.laft, & 13. Rom. 8:35. Ephef. 6.23.1 Tim. 1.5. 2 Thef. 3. 5. 1 Cor. 2. 9. & 8. 3. Rom. 8.28. James 1. 12. & 2.5.1 Pet. 1. 8.

[ocr errors]

Prop. 11. Repentance towards, God, is the fouls returnto
God

God in Love; and Regeneration by the Spirit, is the Spirits begetting us to the Image and Nature of God our heavenly Father, in a heavenly Love to him: So that the Holy Ghoft is given us to work in us a Love to God, which is our fanctification, Rom. 5. 5. Titus 3. 4, 5, 6,7. 2 Cor. 13. 14. 1 John 4. 16.

Prop. 12. When Sanctification is mentioned as a gift confequent to Faith, it is the Love of God as our Father in Chrift, and the Spirit of Love, that is principally meant by that San&tification.

Prop. 13. The pardon of fin confifteth more in forgiving the pœnam damni, the forfeiture and lofs of Love, and the Spirit of Love, than in remitting any corporal pain of fenfe. And the reftoring of Love, and the Spirit of Love, and the perfecting hereof in Heaven, is the most eminent part of our executive Pardon, Juftification and Adoption. Thus far Sanctification is Pardon it felf, Rom, 8.15,16,17. Gal.4.6. 1 Cor. 6. 10, 11. Titus 3. 6, 7. Titus 2. 13, 14. Rom. 6. Rom. 8. 4,10,13.

Prop. 14. The pardon of the pain of fente, is given us as a means, to the executive pardon of the pain of lofs, that is, to put us in a capacity, with doubled obligations and advantages to Love God, Luk. 7. 47

Prop. 15. Sinification therefore being better than all other pardon of fin, as being its end, we mult value it more, and muft make it our firft defire to be as holy as may be, that we may need as little forgivenefs as may be, and in the fecond place only defire the pardon of that which we had rather not have committed; and not make pardon our chief defire, Rom. 6, &7, & 8. throughout, Gal. 5. 17. to the end.

Prop. 16. Holiness is the true Morality; and they that prefer the preaching, and practice of Faith in Chrift, bafore the preaching and practice of Holiness, and fleighc this as meer morality, do prefer the means before the end, and their phyfick before their health: And they that preach or think to practife Holiness, without Faith in Chrift, do dream of a cure without the only Phylician of fouls. And they that preach up Morality

as confißting in meer juftice, charity to men, and temperance, without the Love of God in Chrift, do take a branch cut off and withered, for the tree.

Some ignorant Scataries cry down all Preaching, as meer morality, which doth not frequently tofs the name of Chrift, and Free Grace.

And fome ungodly Preachers, who never felt the work of Faith or Love to God in their own fouls, for want of holy experience, favour not, and understand not holy Preaching; and therefore fpend almoft all their time, in declaiming againft fome particular vices, and fpeaking what they have learned of fome vertues of fobriety, juftice or mercy. And when they have done, cover over their ungodly unbelieving courfe, by reproaching the weakneffes of the former fort, who cry down Preaching meer morality. But let fuch know, that those Minifters and Chriftians, who juftly lament their lifeless kind of Preaching, do mean by morality, that which you commonly call Erbicks in the Schools, which leaveth out not only Faith in Chrift, but the Love of God, and the Sanctification of the Spirit, and the beavenly Glory. And they do not cry down true morality, but these dead branches of it, which are all your morality: It is not morality it fell inclufively that they blame, but meer morality, that is, fo much only as Ariftotles Ethicks teach, as exclufive to the Chriftian Faith and Love. And do you think with any wife men (or with your own confciences long to find it a cloak to your Infidel or unholy hearts and doctrine, to miftake them that blame you, or to take advan fage of that ignorance of others? The Grace of our Lord Jesus Cbrift, and the Love of God the Father, and the Communion of the Holy Ghoft, do fhut up your Liturgy by way of Benediction; but it is almost all thut out of your Sermons, unless a few heartJefs cuftomary paffages: And when there is nothing less in your preaching, than that which is the fubftance of your Baptifmal Covenant and Chriftianity, and your customary Benedidion; you do but tell the people what kind of Christianity you have, and what Benediction: that is, that you are neither truly Chriftians, nor Blessed,

True Morality, or the Chriftian Ethicks, is the Love of God

and

« AnteriorContinua »